Would you use a member rated score on the Xbox Live Dashboard?

[Peench]

At a recent event I hosted a load of gamers and a few non-gamers discussed the gaming community. I have the notes from the event and plan on posting them up for further discussion but this recent news article caught my eye. The story talks about the upcoming Wii Channel that will debut on the Wii this month. The part that interested me was the following quote:

For example, if a Wii user has played a WiiWare game for at least an hour, they will be able to review the game on the Nintendo Channel. The reviews will be available for other Wii owners to read.

I hosted the same topic in two sessions. I am fairly certain that during each session one of the topics that came up was permitting Xbox Live members to rate games directly in the Xbox Live Dashboard. Gamers viewing the dashboard would then have instant feedback on a variety of games.

There was quite a bit of discussion on logistics, desirability, etc., but everyone seemed to agree that some sort of Amazon-like rating system generated by gamers would be pretty dang cool.

The article about the new Wii Channel seemed very interesting to me in that it essentially accomplishes the same thing we talked about. Technically it is a bit different since there are no preview copies of games available on the Wii, but the concept is still the same.

I don't know how this will work on the Wii, but it is certainly interesting. Sure the Wii doesn't have the same number of users connecting up online, but if this project is even marginally successful, could it be even that much more successful on Xbox Live?

So my question is simple, would you use this type of feature on Xbox Live? And by "use" I could mean actually rating games, or relying on the ratings to get games. I didn't want to break it up into two polls, but if you care to clarify, please do so.

[The Milk Man 09]

I would take it into consideration but not go by it as much as I would as a review from a credible website or magazine.

[Snake1399]

i like the idea just because if i'm ever on the fence about a game, it might help make my decision a little easier. Altho, thats what PGL is for isnt it???

[Crippler]

I would definitely use it as a basis for or against a purchase. I would take it with a grain of salt but I would use it.

[D_Litch]

I would use it if it had a friends filter. I really don't give a flying fudge what "Azz2Mouf420" thinks.

[Twilight]

[quote=Twilight;136060]I think a sad fact of the gamer community is that the majority of us are teens (or younger) and members of that demographic are not a credible source of info.

Gamefly has a user generated score and reviews for its game and most of the posts tend to be to either extreme. I think for the majority of the voters, any given game is either a 10 or a 1. If they like it, its "AWESOME!!!!!!THE BEST GAME EVA!!!!!!!!!" if they don't its "STUPID, GAY, THE WORST GAME EVA!!!!!!!!!!!"

So while such a feature may be amusing, it would certainly not sway my decision one way or another.

Like Litch said, if you could filter the ratings by friends or prefered player, it might be worthwhile.

[Desi Cuse]

Twilight, the average gamer is more so in his low 30s. At least thats what I've gathered from my research.

[lovekeiiy]

Cuse is correct about the average gamer. I think the more vocal ones tend to be in their teens.

As to whether I would use it, I would check it out. I would rather see some objective synopsis for the ratings. it's what I read/watch for in critic game reviews. The problem I have, is it may be a system for game developers to see what works and what doesn't, and then curtial all their games to those likes and dislikes, and never venture into something new to expand games or create new genres. I know, I know....game developers are already doing this for the most, see EA. But thinking about how much money can be a stake for game developers, risk tolerence gets lower as cost for development increases.

Unfortunately, I think Brian hit the nail on the head, we're not going to see that many objective reviews. It's going to be fanboys and anti-fanboys. Maybe one out of ten will be decent.

As a community tool, I think it would be a nice outlet for many gamer to express their opinions. Then again, isn't that what most of them doing in the various forums out on the net?

[Peench]

Originally Posted by lovekeiiy

As a community tool, I think it would be a nice outlet for many gamer to express their opinions. Then again, isn't that what most of them doing in the various forums out on the net?

Yep, that's true, but the question we discussed was how to bring the community together. Right now we are pockets of little communities all over the place. That is great because we all don't fit in everywhere. But is bridging that gap possible? I'm not sure. We talked about the possible of things that MS can do to bring the community together more.

[D_Litch]

Originally Posted by lovekeiiy

As a community tool, I think it would be a nice outlet for many gamer to express their opinions.

I thought I was the Community Tool

[A SpecialFriend]

I think it would be great. Sure you will have a ton of people rating it one way or another purely on the fact that they just don't like the genre or whatever but I think will all the people that re on Live it would balance out. I like the idea someone above stated about a Friends Filter, which would be turned on for me as well, but I love the idea!

[Thornes70]

No, I think this is the dumbest idea ever. I like people buying games & then bitching about it! lol

Actually, I just coudn't put much faith in it, other than "wow, who would've ever expected Halo/CoD4 etc. to be so popular...

Both games I really don't care for, btw.